The Bride's Bodyguard

by Beth Cornelison

  “Or nephew…”

  Paige smiled, tears filling her eyes. “No. It’s a girl. Another Bancroft woman to carry on our tradition.”

  Holly wiped a tear from her own face. “Be safe. I love you, too.”

  Paige emerged from the bathroom in her own clothes. Jake hustled her down the hospital corridor, his gaze sweeping the length of the hall, keeping a vigilant watch for suspicious activity. Heat blasted them as they stepped outside and crossed the blacktop parking lot to the rental car.

  He unlocked and opened the door for Paige, who gave him a satisfied look as she settled in the passenger seat.

  He cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

  “I did it. I got in to see Brent, questioned him about the bead and we got out without anyone seeing us or shooting at us.”

  He pressed his lips in a thin line. “Don’t get cocky. We’re not in the clear yet.” Jake closed her door and scanned the parking area as he circled to the driver’s side of the Taurus. The interior of the car had become an oven in the summer sun, and sweat popped out on his face within seconds of climbing inside. He cranked the engine and shot Paige a glance as he checked over his shoulder to back out.

  She yanked the silk scarf from her head and tousled her thick dark hair. “Jeez, this thing is hot.” She returned Jake’s stare with a wide-eyed expression. “I have so much to tell you. I know what the security threat is and what our next move has to be.”

  Jake’s gut tightened. As much as he wanted to know everything right then, he knew their higher priority was getting out of sight. “Save it. We’ll go over everything back at the campground.”

  As he pulled out of the parking lot and merged into the downtown traffic, Paige turned the air-conditioning on full power, high fan.

  “I learned something else today, too. About my sister.” A broad smile lit her face, and she sighed contentedly. “I’m going to be an aunt! Holly is pregnant with her first child!”

  Jake gave Paige the requisite grin, although the idea of children stirred uneasily in his gut. Family, kids, a white picket fence were all foreign concepts for him. Seeing how happy Paige was for her sister told him all he had to know about Paige’s own wish for that kind of domestic bliss. The uneasy roil in his gut became a hollow ache.

  Knowing he couldn’t give Paige what she wanted, couldn’t be the man she needed, hurt more than he cared to admit. When had he started thinking beyond the end of this mission? His job was to keep Paige safe and protect the bead to contain the national security threat. So why was he thinking in terms of any future for them past that?

  He mulled that point fruitlessly, the empty pit in his chest growing deeper, until they reached the edge of town and headed for the highway back to the campground. To distract himself from that unsettling line of thought, he rolled his shoulders and sent her a puzzled look. “How is this Holly’s first baby? I thought she and her husband had two kids.”

  As he returned his attention to the road, he glimpsed a blue sedan gaining on them quickly. Two sedans, he amended when the second car pulled forward into view.

  “They do. They’re Matt’s kids from his first marriage. She’s adopting them, but this is her first biological baby. The first Bancroft grandbaby by blood.”

  “Mm,” he hummed in acknowledgment, but his focus was on the identical sedans. A prickle of alarm nipped his neck.

  Jake sped up, looking for an exit. The sedans caught up to them but didn’t pass. Grinding his back teeth, Jake took the next exit. Checked his mirrors.

  The blue sedans followed.

  He muttered an earthy curse word and squeezed the steering wheel.

  “What?” Paiged asked, sending him a worried look.

  “We have company. Hang on.”

  Paige twisted toward the back window as Jake took the first right turn he got to, then a left. The two blue cars stayed on their tail. He sped up, and the sedans matched his speed.

  “They’re still there!” Paige cried.

  “Not only are they still there, they’re not trying to hide the fact they’re there.” Acid churned in his gut. “Get my gun out of the glove compartment.”

  She did, and passed it to him. For several more blocks, Jake tried in vain to lose their pursuers.

  Finally, the first sedan seemed to tire of the chase and raced ahead of them.

  “Are they leaving?” Paige’s voice held surprise and hope.

  Jake knew better, and his body tensed even tighter. He didn’t have a chance to answer her wishful thinking before the first sedan jerked to a stop at an angle mere feet in front of them.

  Jake braked hard to avoid hitting them, then slammed the rental car into Reverse. But the second car pulled up to the back bumper of their rental, boxing them in.

  The doors of the first car flew open, and two armed men climbed out.

  “Lock your door,” he told her, knowing how little the move would mean if the goons wanted to get inside. If they started shooting…

  “Get down. On the floor. Stay there until I tell you otherwise.” He wrapped his fingers around his SIG Sauer, and with his free hand, he cut the wheels sharply. He backed up, crashing into the second car, then shifted back into Drive. He’d intended to drive off the shoulder, cross-country if needed, to get away. But one of the armed men was already at Paige’s door.

  He smashed her window with the butt of his gun. She screamed. Glass rained down on her.

  Jake leveled his weapon on the barrel-chested goon at the passenger door. “Stand back!”

  The driver’s window shattered, and the cold kiss of steel touched his temple.

  “Drop your weapon, or I’ll drop you,” a high-pitched male voice grated behind him.

  “Do it!” the goon at Paige’s door echoed.

  Jake hesitated. His gun was all he had to defend Paige. If he put it down…

  A sharp blow slammed into his skull, and the edges of his vision dimmed.

  “Paige,” he rasped, reaching for her.

  And then…nothing.

  Chapter 11

  “Jake!” Paige screamed as his eyes rolled back and he slumped on the seat. She scrambled to reach him, tears filling her eyes. Instantly, the passenger door was yanked open, and a burly man grabbed her upper arm.

  “No!” She flailed and fought, but against his brawn she stood no chance. He hauled her out of the car and shoved her toward the waiting blue sedan.

  If you get in the car you’re as good as dead. She remembered a self-defense video that she’d watched with Zoey a couple years ago that instructed women to fight with all they had for release.

  And she fought. She clawed, she struggled, she jerked.

  Until the beefy guy with his paw clamped on her arm and stuck a gun in her face. Icy, instinctive fear washed through her. Froze her.

  “Get in the car.”

  She tried to scream again, but even her throat seemed paralyzed.

  Jake! Jake! Help! her brain screamed.

  The goon shoved her roughly into the backseat, and before the door closed, she cut a glance toward the rental car.

  Jake hadn’t moved.

  Bile surged into her throat. Oh, God! Was he dead? What had they done to him?

  “Get the boyfriend. Bring him, too,” the driver shouted.

  The beefy guy took two steps back toward the rental car then stopped. “We got company. Forget the guy. Let’s move!” He climbed in next to her and gave her a leering grin. “We got what we need.”

  The second man, who’d hurt Jake, joined them on the backseat, frowning.

  With a thud, the back door closed, and the sedan screeched away.

  If you get in the car, you’re as good as dead.

  Paige’s chest squeezed, and tears burned her eyes. She was dead.

  Jake blinked. Black spots swam before his eyes, and nausea roiled in his gut. When he raised his head, lightning shot through his skull.

  Squinting against the pain, he peered through the windshield in time to see Paige shoved into t
he blue sedan. A big ape of a man followed her in and slammed the door.

  No! Alarms blared in his head. No!

  He glanced desperately around the front seat, searching for his gun.

  The squeal of tires cut his search for his SIG Sauer short. He glanced up just as the blue sedan pedaled away. The second car followed.

  Jake’s heart clenched, and a sinking sense of failure settled over him like a boulder in his chest.

  His head throbbing, Jake blinked the world into focus. A fresh shot of adrenaline cleared the last remnants of haze from his brain.

  He hadn’t lost her yet. As long as he kept the blue sedan in sight, he had a chance to rescue Paige.

  Jamming the car into gear and battling the headache from hell, he tore after the sedan.

  Paige scuttled across the backseat, moving as far away from the beefy man as she could. She shook to her core, terrified of what they might do to her and worried sick about Jake.

  Please, God, let Jake be all right!

  “Wh-who are you? What do you want?” she demanded, although she knew what they wanted. She rubbed her fingers, almost involuntarily, and only then remembered she wasn’t wearing the ring. She’d put it in Jake’s backpack for safekeeping.

  “We’ll ask the questions. If you cooperate, we may even let you live.” The beefy man snaked a hand out to stroke her cheek, and she flinched. “The world needs pretty women like you.”

  His leering expression made her stomach turn. The gun he held loosely in his hand sent a shiver to her bones. She didn’t doubt for a minute that these men would shoot her if she didn’t give them what they wanted.

  But she didn’t have what they wanted.

  Jake did.

  A fresh wave of icy fear washed through her. Not only could she not turn over the ring to save her life, telling the men where the ring was would put Jake’s life in grave danger. Again.

  Because Jake would surely resist, and these men would have no qualms about killing him. Acid puddled in her stomach, and her lunch seesawed and rebelled.

  “Where is the bead with Scofield’s nanotube?” the second man in the backseat growled, getting in her face. She recognized him now as one of the men who’d crashed her wedding with Trench Coat. Apparently, this man was now the ringleader.

  “I—” she started, her voice cracking. “I don’t—”

  “And before you tell us you don’t know what we’re talking about, know this. We know you were at the hospital. We know you talked to Scofield. We know Scofield claims to have passed the bead to you at some point. Considering that you and your new boyfriend were in Scofield’s office the other night, we know you are working with Scofield to keep us from getting the nanotube with the virus.” He waved his gun in front of her. “So answer very carefully.”

  Paige’s mouth grew dry, knowing her answers could put people she cared about in grave danger. If she gave up the location of the nanotube to these goons, they could use the virus in a weapon and start a terrible flu epidemic, costing thousands, even millions of people their lives.

  She shuddered. But if she didn’t give these men something, she’d be killed, pretty or not.

  Think, Paige, think!

  Ringleader had only said he knew that she’d been at the hospital, not that he’d heard any of her conversation with Brent.

  Paige curled her fingers into a fist, digging her fingernails into her palm. And reasoning out her options. She had to tread lightly. If she lied, and they caught her in the lie, because they had been listening in Brent’s hospital room…

  “I—I only learned the truth about the bead and the virus in it today…when I saw Brent at the hospital.”

  That much was true.

  “Go on.” Ringleader gestured with the gun for her to proceed.

  Their driver took a corner at a high speed, and Paige was thrown against the beefy thug who’d grabbed her. The sour smell that clung to him made her stomach roil harder.

  Where were they going? It would behoove her to pay attention to where they were. In case she got free and had to tell someone—Jake, the cops, her father—where she was.

  She craned her neck to see out the window, and Ringleader jabbed her in the ribs with his weapon.

  “Stop stalling! What did Scofield say? Where is the damn bead!”

  Paige shivered as her captor’s voice elevated, sounding more taut and angry with every word. She had to give him something to earn his trust, had to let him think she was cooperating, even if…

  “He said he put the bead in…m-my ring.” Her heart clenched as the words spilled out, but a heartbeat later, inspiration struck, and her hopes soared. “In my engagement ring.”

  Ringleader narrowed his eyes on her as if debating whether to believe her, then shot his cohort an inquiring glance.

  “Could be done. He coulda hid that nanotube in about anything.”

  “He had a special glass bead made to look like a diamond. He…switched rings on me one night when I had my engagement ring off washing dishes. I never suspected anything.” The lies rolled off her tongue, and she prayed she could be convincing and also not paint herself into a box that would trap her.

  Ringleader arched a dark eyebrow, and his gaze darted to her left hand. With a rough grab, he jerked her hand up to study her fingers.

  “Where is it? Where’s the ring?”

  “Well, see…here’s the thing…I didn’t know what he’d done. I didn’t know about the nanotube, and—” The dark glare Ringleader narrowed on her almost tripped her up.

  She swallowed hard as bile clambered up her throat. Once she’d calmed the sick roll in her gut, she offered them another tiny truth that would buy her and Jake more time. “I pawned it. For the cash. I sold it, a—” Her heart stumbled as she made a split-second decision. “And my wedding ring.” Her pulse kicked higher as she prattled on, hoping to convince them of her story. “I was mad at Brent, knew I wasn’t going to marry him after he’d betrayed me like this, and the money was—”

  “Bull.” Turning to his cohort, he barked, “She’s got it somewhere. Search her.”

  Paige gasped, and her stomach roiled as she was subjected to a rough, thorough and intimate search. “Stop it! I pawned it,” she cried, battling Beefy Guy’s hands. “I swear! I sold—”

  “Where?” Ringleader cut her off. “What pawnshop?”

  “I…don’t remember the name of the shop.”

  Beefy Guy cocked his gun and angled it toward her. “Try harder.”

  Paige gasped and divided a frantic look between the scowling men. “I…think it had initials… like ABC Pawn or AAA Pawn or EZ Pawn. I know it was on the south side of town near the airport.”

  Along with dozens of other pawnshops. Maybe the sheer volume of pawnshops on the south side of town would keep these goons searching for a day or two.

  She and Jake needed just twenty-four to forty-eight hours to find Brent’s contact in the CDC, arrange to meet him and pass over the nanotube. She wished they could just go to the FBI or police, but Brent had repeated his warning not to. He had reason to believe the terrorists had help from someone within Homeland Security.

  Ringleader still looked unconvinced, but he leaned forward and barked to the driver, “Head south. Call Bern and tell him to work up a list of every pawnshop in the city, listing the ones in the southern part of the city first.” He glanced back to Paige with a suspicious scowl. “We’re going shopping.”

  Jake kept the blue sedans in his sights but, by keeping several cars between him and his target, stayed far enough back not to be spotted.

  Though pain pounded in his head, guilt hammered harder. He’d blown it again. He’d asked Paige to trust him to keep her safe, and he’d let her down.

  He’d let her get snatched from the seat beside him. Hell.

  Whatever it took, he would get Paige back. He would save her before those slime bags had a chance to—

  A sharp ache reverberated in his skull. He could have a concussion. The pain made his e
yes tear, and he clenched his teeth, fighting to stay conscious. When he touched his fingers to the goose egg on his head, he found a small bleeding cut.

  Didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting to Paige, getting her away from the terrorists before they could hurt her.

  Ahead of him, the first blue sedan jerked a hard right-hand turn. The second sedan didn’t.

  Jake blinked as his vision swam, making sure he’d seen correctly. The blue sedans were splitting up?

  A chill prickled Jake’s nape. If he were two men, he’d follow the second car to see where it went. Maybe he’d find out more about who was behind the terrorist group and what they were after.

  But he was only one man, and his priority, his only real goal, was Paige’s safety.

  Gripping the steering wheel so tightly his skin blanched, Jake shook off another wave of nearly blinding pain.

  I’m sorry, Paige. I’m so sorry. Hang on. I’m coming.

  When he reached the side street where the first car had turned, Jake followed.

  “Tabor and Henchcliff can take the first half of the list, and we’ll do the second half.” Ringleader had gotten on his cell phone as soon as Paige told him about the pawnshop, and in short order, he had his minions scouring the city for her ring.

  Her heart sank. She’d hoped the tidbit she’d given him would keep him busy for days, buying her time. Apparently, Ringleader had enough guys on his payroll to start a miniature dragnet combing the city’s southside shops.

  “The ring is an emerald-cut diamond solitaire set in white gold. It would have been brought in in the last three days by a pretty brunette.” He sent her another side glance that made her stomach do serious flip-flops. “If anyone asks, it’s an heirloom and the poor jilted darling hadn’t known the family history. Got it?”

  Ringleader snapped the cell phone closed and jammed it in his shirt pocket. On his lap, his hand flexed and closed around his handgun.

  Paige took a deep breath for courage. “Look, I told you what you wanted to know. Can’t you let me go now?”